 | The Poetical works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning |  |
A FALSE STEP.
I
Sweet, thou hast trod on a heart.Pass; there's a world full of men;
And women as fair as thou art
Must do such things now and then.
II
Thou only hast stepped unaware,—Malice, not one can impute;
And why should a heart have been there
In the way of a fair woman's foot?
III
It was not a stone that could trip,Nor was it a thorn that could rend:
Put up thy proud under-lip!
'Twas merely the heart of a friend.
IV
And yet peradventure one dayThou, sitting alone at the glass,
Remarking the bloom gone away,
Where the smile in its dimplement was,
V
And seeking around thee in vainFrom hundreds who flattered before,
Such a word as “Oh, not in the main
Do I hold thee less precious, but more!” . . .
VI
Thou'lt sigh, very like, on thy part,“Of all I have known or can know,
I wish I had only that Heart
I trod upon ages ago!”
| The Poetical works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning | |